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Rules and Alerts

The following is a breakdown of the sections of this tutorial. It begins with the basics of creating general rules, and moves into creating specific rules that ITServices has determined as particularly useful for the Office 365 system, particularly sorting Meeting related emails.

What are Rules?
Creating a Rule From the Wizard
Creating a Rule Directly From a Message
Managing Rules
Applying Rules to Other Office 365 Items

What are Rules?

A rule is an action that Office 365 takes automatically on an arriving or sent message that meets the conditions that you specify in the rule. You can choose many conditions and actions by using the online interface for Inbox Rules. Using rules can help you stay organized and up-to-date.

Rules fall into one of two categories — organization or notification. Rules do not operate on messages that have been read, only on those that are unread.

There are several templates provided by Office 365 for new rules. You can also start from a blank rule for the most customization.

Creating a Rule From the Wizard

In the upper right corner of the main interface, click Options and select Create an Inbox Rule...
The Inbox Rules interface will open
- Click New... Alternatively, click the dropdown arrow beside New... and select an option from the choices.
The New Inbox Rule window will now open
- Under When message arrives, and: and Do the following: should be consistent with your choice from the dropdown (although this can be changed). If you started from scratch, select the options you would like under each of these.
- Select the appropriate people, words or folders as indicated on the side
- If necessary, click More Options.... This allows you to add conditions, actions and exceptions to the rule. It also allows you to input a name for the rule. Otherwise a default name will be generated. If Stop processing more rules is checked, only the first rule in the list that is triggered by the message will be applied.
- Click Save when finished
  
  Note: If you have any rules created and turned off in Microsoft Outlook, these rules will be deleted. If you do not want this to happen, when Office 365 prompts you click no and create the rule within Outlook instead. (See guide for creating rules in Outlook).

Create a Rule Directly From a Message

Sometimes, you may wish to create a rule to move messages from someone to a specific folder.

Select the message for which you want to create a rule
- Click Actions from the select message in the Reading Pane
- Select Create Rule... from the dropdown menu
The New Inbox Rule window will appear
- Select the check boxes for the conditions that you want. Many options already contain information from your selected message.
- If necessary, click more options. This allows you to add conditions actions and exceptions to the rule. It also allows you to input a name for the rule. Otherwise a default name will be generated. If Stop processing more rules is checked, only the first rule in the list that is triggered by the message will be applied.
- Click Save when finished
  
  Note: If you have any rules created and turned off in Microsoft Outlook, these rules will be deleted. If you do not want this to happen, when Office 365 prompts you click no and create the rule within Outlook instead. (See guide for creating rules in Outlook).

Managing Rules

In the upper right corner of the main interface, click Options and select Create an Inbox Rule...
The Inbox Rules interface will open
- You will see a list of all the rules you have created (these crossover in Outlook). You can turn a rule on or off by checking the box beside the rule.
- Click the up or down arrow after selecting a rule to move it in the list. This is applicable to the Stop processing more rules, prioritizing the rule that will be triggered
- You can delete rules by clicking the Delete(X) button
- You can also view details of a rule or double click to edit the rule

Applying Rules to Other Outlook Items

When rules are applied, delivery receipts, read receipts, Automatic Replies, meeting requests, task requests and documents are acted upon as if they are messages. For example, a rule that moves items with the word "meeting" in the subject to a specific folder, also moves all delivery receipts, Automatic Reply, task request or meeting request that contains the word "meeting" in the subject

Be aware of the following limitations when you create rules that affect these kinds of items:

An item moved to a non-mail folder might not work as you expect after it is moved. For example, if a message is moved to the Calendar folder, a new appointment is not created.
If a meeting or task response is moved to the Deleted Items folder by using a rule, the response is not tracked by the original item.
If a meeting request is automatically moved to the Deleted Items folder, the meeting is not added to the Calendar.
Rules that affect messages that you send are not applied to task requests and meeting requests.

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